1967 Pontiac Firebird Project Pulls Prius Hybrid Power

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Traditional muscle cars and hybrid vehicles have traditionally played on opposite sides of the fence, but have you ever wondered what might happen if you were to combine the two? We have seen some full-electric conversions, such as the Zombie 222 Mustang, but nothing like this 1967 Pontiac Firebird hybrid, utilizing the powertrain of a Toyota Prius V.

This project is brought to you by internet sensation “Bill the Engineer,” who holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and is a full time engineering supervisor for a hybrid transit bus manufacturer. If there’s anyone who can successfully combine the Firebird and the Prius, it’s this guy. In fact, he is already planning to build an all-electric BMW Z3 for his wife – the person who inspired this entire project in the first place.

“The car was never going to be as nice as I wanted going the conventional route,” Bill said in an interview with AutoBlog. “One day my wife wondered out loud if the car could be converted into a hybrid like our two daily driver Prii. That got me thinking about how it could be done. The rest is history…”

The 1967 Pontiac Firebird convertible being used has belonged to Bill since he bought it for $750 back in 1979. He and his wife each daily drive a Prius, and he bought a third one that was rolled over with only 6,000 miles to use for this project. Bill started the build back in 2014, and predicts that it will be completed by 2019.

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8 Comments

“The car was never going to be as nice as I wanted going the conventional route,” What! So putting a slug of a hybrid system in a beautiful classic pony car is your interpretation of making it “nice”. Sorry Bill the engineer, but with the time, money and effort you are putting out to completely ruin a beautiful car for some pathetic “green” experiment you could have done something over and above awesome with this car conventionally. The amount you will probably operate this car at its completion won’t amount to how much emissions a common Prius being driven over 15,000 miles a year will emit. As usual with most Prius drivers, you are in the fast lane driving with a slow brain. If you ever show this thing off to real car people be prepared for the Hmm’s and Oh’s and the friendly “That’s different” Or “Nice job”, but after they walk away they will be laughing at what a ridiculous misuse of a once great car this was.

Sir Bill, It began life as an American,why would anyone disgrace an American Icon with a Japanese drivetrain . If your thinking Hybrid why not consider VOLT Transplant. Just saying, do the right thing. If you must. Respectfully, GB (CE)